Jose targets Champions League record

Jose Mourinho has revealed he wants to break the record of most UEFA Champions League matches as a manager.

Manchester United return to Champions League action in a week’s time when we host FC Basel in our first group stage game in this season’s competition.

The current record is held by football legend Sir Alex Ferguson, having managed 194 games in Europe’s elite club cup competition, all as Manchester United manager. Mourinho is currently on 133 matches in the Champions League with plenty years left in his career.

The boss has previously won the competition with FC Porto in 2004 and Internazionale in 2010.

We qualified for this season’s competition on the basis of winning the Europa League under Mourinho last season.

Mourinho told MUTV that getting Manchester United back in the Champions League is a positive thing for everyone involved at the club and now has eyes on Sir Alex’s record:

“It’s good for the players, it’s good for me, it’s good for the club. [It] is where we want to go and I think the credit we deserve for last season was exactly to be in the habitat that is not our natural habitat, to do everything to win it [the Europa League] like we did and to do everything we can to respect the second biggest competition in European football.

“But the Champions League is where we want to be and maybe I’m too ambitious, I don’t know, but I want to be the manager with more matches [in the Champions League].

“I know that I am in the top five or six but I’m quite far, especially from the top one [Sir Alex], but I will fight hard to go for that record. Last season, I lost a season in the chase for this record but Manchester United is where Manchester United has to be and I’m really happy with that.

“The Champions League night is a unique experience for everyone. I have some players without that great experience, I think it will be fabulous for them and the fans to be back in the Champions League and to have the initial three matches to be played at Old Trafford, I think is fantastic.”

We start our 2017-18 Champions League campaign on Tuesday 12 September at home to FC Basel, with Portuguese champions Benfica and Russian Premier League runners-up CSKA Moscow the other two teams in the group.